Clue 3

#1 son and #1 daughter have returned from their camping trip. #1 daughter brought this:



Very sweet. There's another one that says "Friend" on the bottom. There have been no less than three actual sheep in the garden, since the first two. It's like a storybook for children - we will learn to count to ten with the help of these animals. We are not quite sure what sort of sheep they are. We know that some of the sheep in the back field are Jacob's, but were under the impression that Jacob's have a dark spot and are not dark all over like the three in the garden the other day.

Work continues on the Hyacinth Mystery. I'm pleased to say that the 2.5mm 100cm circular needle ordered last week has arrived and the stitches are all safely transferred. I much prefer circular needles to straights. However, the points on these are not quite so "pointy" as on the straights I was using. I am hoping this will not create difficulties with the double decreases (slip 2 tog as if to knit, knit 1, pass the two slipped stitches over). It is sometimes hard to dig out those two slipped stitches and get them passed over - that was the manoeuvre which caused the yarn to snap on Rosy Fingered Dawn. It seems to be going OK, so far.



Here is clue 3 almost complete. I have pinned it out as best I can. I'm still not sure that the variegation in the yarn doesn't detract from the lace. It's just so difficult to get an idea of what the whole thing will look like when it's finished. Of course, that's one of the reasons I'm in love with lace. You just don't know how magical it's going to look until you do the blocking at the very last minute.

As I said, I have also done a swatch for the Wedding Ring Shawl, using the gossamer merino and 2.5mm needles.



Same observations as before. I do not think this is the yarn for the job. It's lovely stuff and for something else I think it would be ideal but for this heirloom pattern I think I prefer the silk. I'd like to see if I could get some suitable silk yarn in an ivory colour. Sharon Miller herself is going to be selling it on her website but it is not available yet. I've had a look at Texere and cannot get my head round all the numbers which indicate thickness of yarn. What does 10/1nm mean? How skinny is this? Worst case scenario is that I may have to bite the bullet and order some silk to play with.

Popped into the LYS yesterday to collect the circular needle and couldn't help myself. I ended up buying Rowan Magazine 38. It has some fine patterns in it. It has some patterns which make me think "Never in a million years." and "Do they actually pay people to design this stuff?" I am obviously in the wrong job.